In various fields, there is a demand for improving the surface of such materials as plastics, metals, ceramics, fibers, wood, concrete and coatings to meet various purposes.
For example, it has been well known in the art to improve the surface of polymers. For example, a surface can be made water- and oil-repelling by coating it with a fluorine-containing silane coupling material. To make a surface hydrophilic, it can be coated with polyvinyl alcohol. To make a surface anti-contaminating it can be coated with a suspension of a fluorocarbon-based polymer.
However, conventionally obtained coating films are weakly bonded to polymer-containing materials or coated substrates and become separated by repeatedly wiping the surface with a cloth or washing the surface with water. This results in a loss of the beneficial effects of the surface treatment. Moreover, the conventional coating films comprise randomly oriented molecules. Therefore, the films have many pin holes which deteriorate their characteristics. Further, fluorocarbon-based polymer coating films lack transparency and can not be used on materials such as ornaments, and transparent plastic optical materials for which transparency is strongly demanded.
It is therefore, an object of the invention to provide a method of manufacturing a highly durable, highly functional chemically adsorbed film, which can solve the problems noted above that are inherent in the prior art.
The invention further concerns ornaments. More specifically, high performance ornaments which are highly water- and oil-repelling and anti-contaminating.
Ornaments, when contaminated, decrease in value and esteem. For ornaments, prevention of contaminants is most important. This applies to ornaments in actual use as well as those displayed in department store show windows.
Heretofore, there has been no effective way to prevent contamination of ornaments.
Scrupulous wiping or washing of ornaments is very time-consuming, and certain kinds of contaminants can not be readily removed without causing scars or scratches on the material.
Another object of the invention is to provide a high performance ornament which has an anti-contaminating effect. This is, contaminants will not attach, or they can-be readily removed if attached.